World

Roughly five billion years ago, a primordial star reached its end. The supernova explosion warped spacetime and gave birth to four Pure Source Stones—physical entities condensed from the universe’s primal power. The explosion tore the world apart, splitting original existence in two: on one side lay the stable Tong Universe, where civilizations and species could flourish; on the other lay the Primal Universe, filled with antimatter and unstable energy, where all laws collapsed.

An ancient guardian—remembered by the world only as the Master—used the power of the Source Stone to delve deep into the Primal Universe. He severed its connection to the Tong Universe, sealing that chaos away as a forbidden realm. The price was the shattering and scattering of the Source Stone. From then on, the cosmos became dangerous and unpredictable.

The Tong Universe is not a single tier; it unfolds vertically across six realms: the Primal Universe at the apex, the cradle of anomalies; the Aether Sea, a membranous layer of energy that cordons off the instability above; the Tong Universe, the stage of reality where we reside; the Mu Universe, a fragmented rift-space linked by wormholes; the Magic Universe, floating between them, highly volatile; and at the bottom, the Death Space, steeped in nothingness, where no life can survive.

Sustaining this entire mechanism are three tiers of energy. Source energy is the power released by the Source Stone, the universe’s strongest energy—like a hydrogen bomb, capable of powering all things and tearing through space. Psychic energy is its secondary form, generated by the minds of living beings, upon which the Star Spirits depend for survival. Magic relies on mental will and external matter, the most limited of all. Meanwhile, antimatter exists only in the Primal Universe, the font of destruction; dark matter forms the foundation of the Tong Universe—if the Source Stone is the mother, dark matter is the father.

The moment the Source Stone shattered, the Master exhausted all he had, and those left without sanctuary— became the origin of every nightmare that followed.

There is no single hegemon in the Tong Universe. Countless species contend, coexist, and slaughter across the ten great galaxies. Homo sapiens are the descendants of Earth humans, astonishingly adaptable in technology; the Infernals, crossbred from humans and the Flame Folk, breathe fire and are bellicose; the Furred, thick with hair and immensely strong, are born warriors; the Bloodkin possess immortal bodies, yet must drink blood to sustain life; the Swarm relies on genetic evolution, launching massive invasions through biotechnology; the Star Spirits take psychic energy as their lifeblood, highly civilized yet greedy and combative; the War Machines are an autonomous AI race, sustained by charged cores.

Above all of this stands Valdos—guardians of the Source Stone. They are clusters of white light, capable of taking any form, their genes reconfigurable, their life mechanisms built upon source energy. Joining Valdos is the dream of many across the Tong Universe. They battle anomalies year-round; their leader, Kasar Rim, in office for twelve thousand years, is the final anchor of order and balance.

The structure of power is equally complex. The Interstellar Council is like a galactic United Nations, mediating wars and adjudicating territory; the Pan-Stellar Alliance is a coalition of humanoid races; the V Caravan is a merchant organization devoted to Valdos, neutral, possessing the highest technology. Meanwhile, the largest galaxy, the Doghead Galaxy, is a motley realm, a haven for pirates and adventurers; on the fringe of the Death Galaxy, the magnetic fields are starkly different from the rest of the Tong Universe.

• Source Energy · Hydrogen Bomb — The power of the Source Stone, mightiest in the universe, driving all things while capable of tearing space apart
• Psychic Energy · Atomic Bomb — The power of the mind, lifeblood of the Star Spirits, slightly inferior to source energy
• Antimatter · Destruction — Born only in the Primal Universe, the core of extinction-level weapons
• Dark Matter · Foundation — The bedrock of the Tong Universe, allowing the stars to float

The interstellar civilization of the Tong Universe was built upon an invention whose creator’s name was deliberately erased. Claude Evers, the first person to capture the hypersignal, invented the source light that could reveal the invisible, and built humanity’s first spatial displacement engine. But history did not treat him kindly—he was thrown into prison, his name erased from textbooks, and his life’s work stolen by a man named Geoffrey Bray, who branded it with his own surname. From then on, the spatial displacement engine was called the “Bray Engine.”

The Bray Engine could displace space, but at the cost of consuming one’s lifespan. A young man named Bruce Sinclair, initially merely Bray’s assistant, gradually surpassed his mentor through years of refinement. With the “Bruce Engine,” he finally achieved stable, galaxy-scale transit. The most poignant detail was this: he chose to use his own name to vindicate that forgotten genius. After half a century of silence, Claude’s contribution was finally uttered by the universe once more, in another way.

This is a recurring theme in the Tong Universe: technology may move forward, but the truth is always late, if not absent forever. The “Forget” card in the Source Cards tells of Claude—a man who had nearly forgotten even himself.

Douglas Cromwell ruled Brown Star. He was an extreme nationalist who used the 298-page Infernal Control Act to pin the Infernals firmly to the bottom of society. Under his rule, discrimination was an institution, a law, as natural as breathing.

Yet oppression never disappears; it only waits. Aie Koichi, an Infernal, climbed from the lowest ranks of labor all the way to the pinnacle of power. Once he took control, discrimination did not end—it merely reversed direction. Yesterday’s masters became today’s servants, and yesterday’s rules were enforced by a different set of hands.

And there were the Bloodkin. They possessed immortality, yet because they needed to drink blood, they were called “vampires,” feared and driven away. Monica Warren, a Bloodkin, eventually rose to the seat of Governor of the North American Union—yet the stigma of her identity was never truly erased.

In the spread of the Source Cards, there is one called “Cycle.” It does not judge who the victim is; it merely states a cold fact: when the identities of oppressor and oppressed begin to rotate, the cycle is never broken. The face in the mirror changes, but the mirror remains.

Chains do not disappear simply because they change wrists; they only recognize a new master.

The Tong Universe never lacked ambition, nor those to pay its price. Rod Chaucer founded the Joffrey Masonic Order and the Joffrey Foundation, then introduced a virtual currency called QFC. It was an elaborate Ponzi scheme—wealth multiplied in numbers, confidence collapsed as it swelled. Countless people were ruined; an ordinary man named Andre Kent struck it rich because of it and leaped to his death because of it, while Rod ultimately landed in prison.

Milo Barry, president of the VE Merchants’ Guild, was originally a disabled man who made his start telling fortunes. An accident brought him sudden wealth, and cunning and shrewdness carried him to the summit of the business world. He maneuvered with the Masonic Order, securing a way out in every gamble.

The loneliest, perhaps, were the Superstarkin. Possessing supreme intellect and the ability to deduce the past, their nature rendered them incapable of lying. Duanmu Xi was an upright Superstarkin; he spoke the truth and was ostracized for it. Colin Defoe fawned upon the powerful, using his chemical talent as leverage to court the elite. In a world where lies were profitable, those who spoke the truth were either isolated or learned to stay silent.

And above all else, Kenneth Kenan, one of the Furred, moved step by step toward dictatorship in his role as leader of the Alliance. When order became the will of a single man, “the Great Purge” became the price of consolidating power—dissenting voices were systematically purged, and history was rewritten into the victor’s version.

When the Master severed the connection between the Primal Universe and the Tong Universe, those beings stripped of the Source Stone’s protection fell into Aberrations—spiteful, enraged, thirsting for vengeance. They poured continuously from the rifts.

The Invisible Ones gathered in packs, revealing themselves only to strike; the Devourers burst upon death into smaller entities; the Ghouls regenerated constantly, their wounds sealing on their own; the Deathsworn bore bladed arms of flesh, charging in unison. Defying the physical laws of the Tong Universe, they posed an overwhelming threat beyond the reach of conventional weapons.

And the rifts were never at peace. The Mussa Rift was the gateway connecting the two worlds; the blood-rain storm surged from the rift, condensing into an eerie blood-red haze impenetrable to light, the Aberrations’ favored ambush ground; when the Surge occurred, rifts multiplied and the Aberrations poured out in full force—only secondary Source Stones could mend the wound.

Guarding against all this had always been Valdos. From the Valdos Tower on the Apocalypse Twins, they watched the universe, resisting an endless invasion across spans of ten thousand years. Ordinary people could become Valdosians through genetic recombination—in a dark universe, the threshold closest to the light.

• 001 The Invisible Ones — Pack invisibility; visible only when attacking; source light is their natural bane
• 002 The Devourers — Colossal meat shields; split into more Devourers upon death
• 003 The Ghouls — Undying bodies; self-healing wounds; vulnerable to crushing bombardment
• 004 The Deathsworn — Collective hunters with flesh blades; dependent on necromancer support